Summer Community Service Program in Southeast Asia

It is an exciting time to visit Cambodia. VISIONS teen volunteers will glimpse both the “shock of the new” and the very old in this beautiful Southeast Asia country. They will experience Cambodia’s compelling contrasts in palpable ways -- from the hustle and bustle of Phnom Penh to the more relaxed rhythm of Battambang Province to the timeless ancient wonders of Angkor, from vibrant marketplaces to quietly serene countrysides, from green-beyond-belief rice paddies to silk weaving farms and factories to the ancient art of shadow puppetry and exquisite traditional Cambodian dance.

Cambodia is generally known for the two extremes of its history. There is its country-forming that climaxed in the astonishing Angkor cities and temples, arguably the most sublime combination of art and architecture on the planet, built during the reign of the Khmer empire that spanned nearly six centuries. And there is the singular historical event from 1975 to 1979 when the Khmer Rouge gained a foothold during a period of tumult and instability. Under the Khmer Rouge an estimated 1.5 to 2 million Cambodians, over one-fifth the (then) total population, died through execution, torture, starvation and forced labor. To know Cambodia is to understand Cambodian identity as indelibly forged and shaped by these two facts of its history.